Socialists Will Try to Form Government Even If They Do Not Win Elections

Sofia, March 7 (BTA) - The Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) will try to form a government even if it does not emerge as the number one political force after the March 26 early parliamentary elections, BSP leader and prime minister candidate Kornelia Ninova told Nova TV on Tuesday.

A week ago, the chairman of Bulgaria's other leading party, GERB, made a statement to the contrary. Boyko Borissov told the same television channel that if his party places second in the elections, it will not take part in the formation of the government even if the first-placed party fails to form it. Borissov is ex-prime minister.

Ninova went on to say that on the day after the elections the BSP will carry out an urgent poll among its members to see which political force they want to rule with.

The Socialist leader repeatedly avoided the question about a possible coalition between the BSP and the Movement for Rights and Freedoms or the United Patriots, saying that the poll after the elections will show the preferences of those who will have chosen the BSP as the number one political force.

After the elections and the subsequent poll, the third step will be to hold meetings with other parties in order to consider a governance programme, Ninova said.

She said Borissov is to blame for a failed debate with her. (Borissov had put the blame on Ninova.) According to the BSP leader, Borissov is not afraid of her in particular, he is a coward by nature and has never engaged in a direct debate with anyone.

If the BSP gets to rule the country, it will require retail chains to make sure that 50 per cent of the goods sold in their stores are of Bulgarian origin, Ninova said. She again called for lifting the EU sanctions against Russia, noting that they have been damaging to Bulgaria. "Why is it that Bulgaria cannot sell its canned cucumbers to Russia but last week Mercedes unveiled a factory in Russia? How long will Europe keep treating Bulgaria as a second-class nation?", she asked.

Ninova spoke against the notion of a two-speed Europe and wondered whether Borissov will oppose "his bosses" in the European People's Party on that matter.

The caretaker cabinet appointed by Rumen Radev, who had been elected President with the BSP's support, is actually a cabinet of GERB, she said. To make her point, she cited several names of deputy ministers as well as Finance Minister Kiril Ananiev, stressing that Ananiev was deputy minister of finance in the second Borissov cabinet. But Ninova did not mention the fact that Ananiev was also deputy finance minister under former prime ministers Ivan Kostov, Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Sergei Stanishev and Georgi Bliznashki.